How to Start a Bible Study Journal

In this post, I want to share my favorite tips for starting a Bible study journal.

I’ve started a few Bible study journals in the past and haven’t kept up with any of them. In the last post in this series, I talked about allowing a habit to form. I truly believe that sometimes things take some time to stick. Discipline is hard won. I do know that one of my struggles is learning how to study for myself and for the content that write, and make videos about. It’s kind of a weird thing to juggle. This year, I’m trying a different approach and I’m going to need a new Bible study bullet journal. So, here we go! I’m going to share how I’m putting a new one together.

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My Bible journal method is borrowed heavily from Matthew Everhard on YouTube who borrowed from Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century American theologian. Edwards had an extensive note-taking system called the miscellanies. Simply stated, he had a collection of notes, thoughts, observations, and insights that he kept organized in a system of notebooks and a blank Bible (the inspiration for the interleaved Bibles we have today). I’m not going to go into all the details here, if you’d like more information, you can check out this blog post by Everhard and this video by him as well. Let me show you how I set up my own version of the miscellanies.

The Journal

I’ve used and enjoyed several journals over the years but one I always seen to be be drawn to again and again is the LEUCHTTURM1917. I love the size, the quality of the paper, the color choices and the choice of lined, grid, or dot grid. It’s completely empty with lots and lots of space for all kinds of customization for bullet journaling.

For this Bible journal, I decided to go with the Official Bullet Journal edition of the LT1917 in black. It’s dot grid and has a few extra features that the regular LT1917. It’s scrumptious for a journal! I got mine from Barnes and Noble but sometimes it’s available on Amazon as well.

Barnes & Noble –

Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Black Dotted Edition 2

Amazon –

You can, of course use any kind of journal you want. It doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy, just be sure that it’s something that is comfortable and that you’ll want to use on a regular basis.

I like these features when making my choice –

portable size/not bigger than my Bible
quality make/material
lays flat
lines or grid (helps me to write neatly)

The set up

The index –

Jonathan Edwards miscellanies has an indexing system similar to the bullet journal method. The first few pages are kept for numbering the rest of the journal as a table of context. You can number any way you’d like. For instance –

1, 2, 3, etc
001, 002, 003, etc.
M001, M002, M003, etc. (‘M’ is for miscellanies)
N001, N002, N003, etc. (‘N’ is for notes)

My journal has a 4 pages set up as an index so all I have to do is write down my numbering system

The future log –

My journal also has 4 pages for a future log. In a regular bullet journal, you’d use this space to write down future appointments, projects, etc. Since this journal is specifically for Bible study, I’m going to use my future log for writing down questions, topics, studies, ideas etc., that I want to check out, study, write, or work on in the future. I’ll often think of random ideas and forget to write them down. I do have a couple planners and a general journal that can catch this information as well but it never hurts to have another place to catch ideas.

The first pages –

You can create all kinds of spreads for the beginning of your journal. Like –

Bible fast facts
Books of the Bible reading tracker
Bible marking & highlighter code
Reading list
Quiet time routine

I have a 4 pages of quotes, verses, stickers and photos I pulled from Pinterest. I’ve also got a page for my color code and quiet time routine. In the back of my journal, I have some Bible facts and books of the Bible reading tracking.

Things to keep track of in your journal

There are so many different things you can write in your journal. Here are some ideas –

Bible study notes
memory verses
scripture writing
favorite verses
quotes/notes from books you’re reading
sermon notes
song lyrics
ideas for things you want to write or share on on social media
prayers
prayer requests
gratitude
notes from videos you watch or blog posts you read
spiritual disciplines tracking

What kinds of things do you track and write in your Bible study journal? I’d love to read about it in the comments!